Roger Goodell comments on changing the speed of the game

National Football League commissioner, Roger Goodell, spoke with the NFL Network about speeding up football games.

National Football League commissioner, Roger Goodell, spoke with the NFL Network about speeding up football games.

Many pro sports leagues have been giving thought to speeding up their games to provide a less time consuming product.

"It has been an effort for a long period of time. We've talked about the length of the game, " said Goodell during an interview with Judy Battista on Thursday. "This effort's not as focused on the length of the game. This is focused on what's happening outside the plays -- how fast we get the ball set, the number of breaks, the number of intrusions -- so that fans can focus on the action."

According to Goodell, one change that will be made is stopping the sandwiching of kickoffs with commercial breaks, which Goodell believes gives viewers no reason to watch that part of the game.

"We call those the 'double-ups.' They drive me crazy, they drive a lot of people crazy. They actually happen about 27 percent of the time. Your reaction, feels like more, everybody says the same thing. I think that's why you want to get rid of it. So our aim is to eliminate that," said Goodell. "It's not necessarily the length (of commercial breaks), it's the number. So we're gonna reduce it by 25 percent. We're gonna add a commercial to each of those (breaks) but it's something we're testing with our fans, (and) they actually didn't even notice that. What they notice is the number of breaks.